So, what’s your tragedy?
Recently I participated with thirteen other authors and poets in a local book fair. I was inspired to learn about their books and the authors behind them like a match to a flame, reigniting my desire to write memoir. But one writer’s question made me realize a memoir shouldn't be labeled by its tragedy but rather for the reasons why it was written. “Hi, I’m Nancy,” I said, interrupting this well-published and awarded author as she rummaged through a filled bag plopped on the floor next to her. “Yes, hello,” she said. She remained seated behind [...]
violating memoir’s definition?
Since I’ve been a memoir writer and a defender of the genre, I’ve been righting what I believe is an inaccuracy. By definition, memoir focuses on one segment, an event or experience of a writer’s life. But I would argue to widen the lens and say a book can still be called a memoir even if told with multiple events and experiences. My book would not be called a memoir according to the definition. Under the Birch Tree was not written as a single event, but was a progression of [...]
gone without a trace
I completed a final draft of a blog post (I had started it as a Word doc) last week about how our most vivid memories come from our childhoods. I explored why that might be. I fired up my laptop to post the blog the next day, but was stalled as my computer ran updates. Twenty minutes later, I logged in. Where was my document "post" on the home screen? Where was my work-in-progress novel, too? I searched for the two missing documents in my laptop's innards as best as [...]
how stream of consciousness writing can deepen your writing
As a writer, I am asked how I come up with something to write about. The question usually precedes a comment—that it is difficult to write in such a vivid and transparent way as to put oneself in the setting and in a character’s mind. Writing memoir evolved from years of my journal and note-taking to recently publishing a book. My journal and notes were recordings of my thoughts, internal monologues really, revealing myself, including vulnerabilities, weaknesses and strengths. These recordings can be useful to a writer as they are [...]
breaking up is hard to do
In 2016, I wrote an essay, I Called You a Memoir, where hope said yes; my completed memoir wasn’t just a vision, but a reality. Working on a memoir was the most labor intensive task I’ve ever attempted as autobiographical timelines covered the surface like a fog that skews a real picture. When I made my way through self-discovery to find a place to be, home became clear. The essay was published in The Magic of Memoir, Inspiration For the Writing Journey "I was once eager to find complicated significance [...]
Madison
And here comes a young woman headed straight for me. She looked excited with wide-eyed brown eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses, her reddish-brown hair pulled tight in a ponytail, revealing a fresh young, round face, and dimples like parenthesis around her lipstick-stained lips. She stopped in front of me where I was sitting behind a table and behind copies of my memoir, Under the Birch Tree at a recent Lit Fest in Chicago. Picking up the book to closely look at the front cover, she delighted, “Oh, I’ve heard of this [...]
newspapers – gone but not forgotten
I recently read about Greg Weinman in the Chicago Tribune newspaper who inherited over 2,000 newspapers, historically headlined, his father had collected for nearly a century. He needed to dispose of them because he is moving and no longer has the space to store them. Libraries and universities didn’t want them so he will lay them out on his driveway and invite the public to take what they want. He’ll put what remains in the recycle bin. This story reminded me of a fifth-grade field trip I took in the [...]
what can a book cover really say?
While I was writing my memoir, I had envisioned my book’s cover to be a picture perhaps of an elegant landscape in oil paints of wispy birch trees with their wavy leaves in soft greens, peeling bark in degrees of white to muddy grey and tan. The image would speak to you, inviting you to join me on my search for home, my place to be. Sounds lovely, right? But this cover wouldn't tell you much of anything about my book or even allude to a story, which wasn’t literally [...]